American Academies

Apparently we hold partnerships we four US academies, I was just wondering what are we trying to achieve by this is it simply just to raise the profile of the club in the US or is it to have first pick at any potential american "wonderkids"?

 

yOUD JUST END up a fat *

 

dont know why tho football well soccer aint that big in the us they have bigger sports over there like nhl nfl nba etc soccer aint highly rated over there

 

In what sense? We will have the same setup in a few countries, the reason being to try and find players good enough to play for us

Their national side got to the knockout stages of the World Cup, something Scotland has never done. Goes for nothing.

 

It's not a massively popular spectator sport, but the MLS is growing bit by bit. Also, a vast number of kids play. I think there is definitely untapped potential there and if the youth scouting and development grows, particularly working with the higher profile and well-paying clubs in Europe, it may well become an excellent source of talent a few years down the road.

There's also enormous potential there already for women's football. The US national women's team is among the best in the world. I believe they are currently ranked #1.

 

The real reason "soccer" hasn't taken off in the US is because it's 45 minute half's and the only time for commercials is at half time.

American football - play stops often and commercials at ever opportunity.
Baseball - same as above
Basketball - similar to above especially as it is played in quarters.
Hockey - same as above

That's the real reason "Soccer" hasn't taken off - They can't make enough money from it off commercials.

If you want soccer to become big, play it in 15 minute quarters with commercials every time a free kick needs to be taken, a substitution is made or a player has cramp. Instead of half time analysis of the game from expert pundits, get Ollie Murs up to sing a wee song and some cheer leaders to fire t shirts in the crowd.

Think I prefer football the way it is than the way it would have to be to be popular in the US.

 

football is watched by more people in the US than the NHL

 

not sure but ive always thought we should have centers of excellence in other country's

 

I wouldn't thing it would be a great idea to start bringing many young Americans over to Lennoxtown , as its likely some of them or their parents would be telling Celtic how to train and develop everyone at Celtic .

 

Football in the US is actually a lot more popular than what a lot of people think. Yeh the NBA and NFL are bigger, but football is actually growing in popularity, and will probably do more-so now with the US getting to the Quarter Finals of the World Cup.

Here's a wee snippet on the reasoning behind the American Academy partnerships...
http://pdasoccer.org/home/540721.html

 

Just uploaded on our YouTube channel.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgJboXC1JgM&list=UUBN-bb-hE7jYlcp4exwXRsQ"]Celtic FC - San Diego Football Academy - YouTube[/ame]

 

Celtic has partnerships with a number of US youth clubs. But only 2 of them Boston Bolts and PDA in New Jersey are part of the US academy system. The other clubs Celtic have partnerships with would be smaller clubs outside the academy system which currently is the top of the tree so to speak when it comes to youth soccer in the US.

The reality is the partnerships have little to nothing to do with Celtic looking to unearth some talent that could be developed at Lennoxtown. Unless a player is exceptional and has an EU passport there is no chance of him ending up at Lennoxtown. The partnerships do give Celtic some presence and visability in parts of the US youth soccer market but there is not a whole heck of a lot more to it beyond that.


Also the MLS teams academy systems are growing stronger each year and will likely end up dominating most markets locally in terms of young talent so that makes the chances of a young American coming to Lennoxtown even less and almost zero when you add in the EU passport issue.

 

Do you realise how expenisve that would be

 

Pretty sure it costs quite a large amount of money for kids to play for a team over there too

 

Pretty sure if you talk to most Americans, the lack of commercials is a big reason why the sport is taking off here. Regarding it's popularity as a spectator sport, the MLS which is admittedly an inferior product to the big European leagues, is averaging 17,000 per game which is higher than the NBA or NHL. Seattle regularly gets over 45,000 in attendance for it's games. So these points may have been valid 10 years ago but not any more and the trajectory is only going upward

 

your 100% correct. I speak to people about that over here and thats my theory for it not being big TV wise but American sport fans , intact Americans in all just don't understand how a game can finish in a draw. Even if I explain the whole points for wins & draws and how it makes the leagues/group stage more interesting. Americans always tell me, well they should change that law and they shouldn't do this and they shouldn't do that .. Blahh * blah.

its a huge country mind you, there is interest in the sport more than there was 20 years ago during the 94 world cup. I honestly think that if qutar lose their WC bid, it should go to America as they already have everything in place including stadiums, mixed climates, good transportation etc. I honestly believe a world cup in America would change peoples perspective on the game if it was to happen.

and Dianna Ross wouldn't miss the penalty to open it up. We'd have the cast from the jersey shore as the linesmen for the 1st match ...

 

agreed graham mate

 

It's like our partnership with Santos in Mexico seems slow to yield any results thought we might have had a couple of players over for a trial by now.. Or is not that kind of partnership? anyone know.. Sorry if off topic a bit..

 

I have been living in the States for 44 years and I can tell you that outside the inner cities for the last 15-20 years you will see more "soccer" fields than baseball fields.
Schools love the game for you can outfit a whole team for the cost of one American footballer,parents love the game,because Johnny does,nt have to be 6-7 and 270 lbs..
The great thing these days about "soccer" is that parents now realize that their children can get a scholarship to highschool or college by being good at that game,and there are some great kids coming through the ranks.

 

We got Jaurez did we not?